The Strategist II: Vengeance
by SF3P0X1
Summary: Picking up where The Strategist left off, Archis returns home to answer a distress call and finds the inhabitants of his planet slaughtered, and an enemy flying away in large silver ships... OCs abound. You have been warned.
1. CH1

It had been a couple days since the defeat and obliteration of Prince Tarble. Archis had stuck around the castle for a bit, getting to know the royal family and doing dull paperwork to make the alliance between Mobius and Castor final, and when everything was finished he was happy to get a move on. You can't really look forward to returning to a place if you don't leave, you know?

Manic was still in the hospital recovering from the battle. The first time a superior form is used, it takes a LOT of energy out of you. Archis was constantly reminded of the first time he broke into his Super Saiyan form. He didn't remember much except that the planet he was fighting on seemed to gain a few new craters, and he happened to sleep for nearly three days before feeling refreshed again. The beastly enemy that had pissed him off enough to push him that far was nowhere to be found, either. Archis figured he killed him.

After saying his goodbyes and promising to return at some point in the future, Archis left the castle, flying back to his space pod. Instant Transmission would have gotten him there quicker, yes, but one uses Instant Transmission when one doesn't have the time to do one last bit of sightseeing, which was Archis' intent.

From his height, Archis could see the damage that the fight with the former Saiyan prince had done to the forest. There was a massive crater in the middle of the forest, and a large chunk of trees missing from where Manic's blast had disintegrated them. There were also lots of little holes where Tarble's smaller Ki blasts had landed after being deflected by Archis himself. The Castor Saiyan felt bad for the damage he caused, but had to report home right away so he couldn't stay to help heal the damage.

The flight home was going to take eighteen months, so by the time he came back, he expected the damage to be gone anyway.

Compared to the nearly hour's walk from his pod to the castle, the flight back was incredibly quick. As the Saiyan neared the crater in the decrepit downtown area, he spotted his capsule at the bottom, the door still open and awaiting his arrival. It looked relatively untouched, save for the dust that had accumulated from the air around it.

Archis smiled, and dropped to the ground at the lip of the crater. He stepped forth and allowed himself to slide down the dirt side, coming to rest close to the capsule's door, and as he placed his hand on the inside of the opening, he took one last look around him. He was going to miss this planet, in much the same way as he missed Earth.

The Castor Prince took a seat in the pod and pressed a couple buttons, allowing the door to shut. As he began his preparations for take-off, a flashing red light caught his eye. Normally, lights flashed in Saiyan capsules for three reasons: one, a leak in the capsule itself, meaning air was depleting and that the capsule was likely to break apart and leave the occupant inside stranded in space; two, the capsule was under attack by a force stronger than the capsule could maintain; or three, there was a distress signal being radioed from Castor.

Since the capsule was currently on the ground on a planet, and there were no hostiles surrounding it, Archis concluded that the third option was the only logical choice for the flashing light. He leaned forward and hit the play button, allowing the capsule's speakers to broadcast the message being delivered from Castor.

"All Saiyans return to Castor... planet under attack... warriors from another world, technology far surpassing our own... casualties immense... royal family under attack... princess Castor has been killed... locate Archis..."

_'Locate Archis?'_

If his sister had truly been killed, and if they were looking for him to return, that would mean the royal family, _his_ family, were the targets. He clenched his fists and closed his eyes in a desperate bid to get a grip on his anger, but Archis could not control the outburst of emotion.

"AAAAAAAAAAGH!" The yell he let out could be heard for miles, even within the walls of the royal castle. The yell was filled with sadness, anger, and a thirst for vengeance. Its sound woke the sleeping Mobian prince from his ward, and left him wondering who was feeling such immense pain.

The power emitted from Archis' body was intense; too intense for the capsule to contain. As he threw his arms to the sides, the capsule around him exploded, its metallic walls turning into dust from the inward attack. Archis stood.

_'Whoever you are,'_ he thought to himself with a glare in his eye, _'I hope you lived a contented life. Because it's about to end violently.'_

The angered Saiyan put his fingers to his forehead, located his planet amongst the stars, and disappeared from the surface of Mobius.


	2. CH2

The landing platform on Castor was usually guarded by two gun-toting Saiyans who weren't very powerful. It was an honor to most, as otherwise they were weak and didn't amount to much, even on Castor. It was this platform that Archis was aiming for.

Like most uses of Instant Transmission, there was no flash or any sign of any kind that the Saiyan was to appear. One second he wasn't there, the next he was. He removed his fingers from his forehead, still as angry as he had been when he left. His stance when he arrived put his back to the rest of his world, and his eyes towards the palace.

The palace in front of him was, when whole, a long, low white building, built to take up space and promote superiority. It was considered a triumph in the original days of Castor to be a part of the ruling class, and the palace was built as a way to signify that the ruling family was more important in some way than the rest of the inhabitants of the planet. Currently, the building was half caved in, and the ruins were smoking. The other half looked beat up, and very well could collapse at any moment.

Archis was seething inside. On the original Saiyan planet, Vegeta, it was considered weakness to have any ties to your family, or to care about any other Saiyan beyond the usefulness you could garner from them. On Castor, such compassion was encouraged, and considered by many to be an enormous strength. Archis wanted to find his sister's body and bury it, but knew that having no idea where she was killed, finding it would be like looking for a needle on Namek.

A large explosion from behind him made him turn around, and what caught his eye in the sky gave him pause. A humongous, silver, alien craft hung in the sky, sparks surrounding it from time to time as Saiyans from all over the planet tried to attack it. Its shields were rendering the Ki attacks all but useless, and the smaller purple cruisers flying about weren't making their jobs any easier. It seemed to Archis that the aliens had plasma weapons in their employ; plasma being a sort of artificial Ki that, when fired from a weapon instead of one's body, was a hundred times more accurate and less draining on the body, although it held about one tenth the destructive power of normal Ki.

Wrenching his eyes from the battle above, Archis looked at the landscape. The landing pad stood many meters above the ground, so that looking over the landscape, one could see and come to appreciate the sprawling empire of Castor, and the ruling city that was Ensis, in which he stood. But Ensis was no longer glorious. Fires dotted the land, black smoke rising into the sky, and there were more piles of ruin than there were standing buildings. It looked as if the silver ship had employed a kind of plasma weapon that had glassed the city in one fell swoop, and the smaller cruisers that were flying around were taking care of the stragglers.

Archis's hands were bleeding now, as hard as he was holding his fists. His nails had pierced through his gloves, and the gloves were now stained red with his blood, rather than being the white they normally were. The Prince turned on his heel and headed for the still standing half of the palace, intent on finding his father and finding out just what was going on, and who these invaders were.

Entering the building, Archis headed for the throne room. The doors were off their hinges, blown into the room, and as Archis passed them he noticed scorch marks. It was as if they had been blown inwardly by a large explosion.

He headed to the throne, where he could see a body sitting in it, slumped over. He rushed to his side, placing his hands at the shoulders of the body, and pulling him upright. It was his father, as he had thought, and he was still breathing, though it was shallow.

"Father..." Archis said softly, and the man opened his eyes and looked at his son.

"Run..." King Castor coughed and blood spattered on the floor. His body slumped over again and he fell from the throne to the floor, laying on his stomach.

Archis saw three metallic, foot-long spikes protruding from his father's back, all in a line going up his spine. His tail was missing, and out of the corner of his eye he could see the appendage lying on the floor beside the throne, as if torn from his father's body and carelessly tossed aside.

He knelt by his father's side. "I will not run." The fight with Tarble had invigorated him, and he wanted vengeance for this attack on his homeworld.

"Save yourself," Castor began, then erupted into violent coughing. The blood beneath the King pooled and spread, and Archis wanted to pull those spikes from his father's back, but knew it wouldn't do any good. "They... their technology... far surpasses our own. They call themselves the Jiralhanae... part of... some... alien Covenant..."

_'Jiralhanae...'_ The word repeated in his mind. It was laced with hate.

"Archis... they came here... for you... their leader..." More coughing, more blood. "Their leader... wields a large hammer... it can produce... shockwaves... blow buildings apart... they throw bombs that... stick to targets... explode after a delay... their weapons... nearly infinite... your sister... your planet... me... we're all dead... don't stay... don't die..."

The King's voice was growing weaker, and Archis clasped his hand in his own, holding on tightly. He closed his eyes and struggled to keep himself from crying. This was not how he pictured his father's death.

"Run... and live..." The King breathed out one final time, and then died. The air was stilled within the palace, save for the sobs of a single heartbroken Saiyan.

Archis opened his eyes, staring at his father's body. The King died trying to protect him, but he would be damned if he was going to run from this fight. Archis was stronger than his father, and believed himself to be the strongest Saiyan of Castor, perhaps in the entire history of the planet. He said a Saiyan prayer for his fallen father, then placed his hands around two of the spikes in his back and pulled upwards. They dislodged from his spine in a shower of blood.

Archis stood, a spike in each hand, and a fire in his eye. These Covenant, these Jiralhanae... Archis was going to make them suffer.


	3. CH3

Archis stepped from the palace just as one of the purple ships laid into it with plasma fire. The building collapsed and a good bit of smoke and dust piled up from the ruins. The ship hovered to make sure nobody survived the collapse; this was their mistake.

One of the metallic spikes that Archis pulled from his father's body shot out from the dust, flying at incredible speed towards the ship. The pilot didn't have time to even think before the spike penetrated the ship's hull and and his skull, killing him on the spot. The passengers of the ship held on for dear life, some of them abandoning the ship while it was still flying, as it careened out of control, heading over the edge of the capsule platform to explode into a ball of plasma flame on the ground below.

The dust from the collapse cleared enough to make out Archis' form just as the ship exploded below him. The three or four Jiralhanae that escaped the explosion of the ship noticed the Saiyan walking towards them, and each of them grinned. To them, these Saiyans were easy pickings, most of them unable to really defend themselves against their superior strength and weaponry. The leader of the planet had gone down with less trouble than a Sangheli, not even needing a full clip from one of their Spikers.

The leader of the group, clad in bright red armor, stepped forward and leveled a large, circular gun right at the advancing Saiyan, expecting him to stop and to see the shock on his face for a split second before he would have pulled the trigger. Instead, the male disappeared with a slight woosh sound. Suddenly there was an enormous pain in the Jiralhanae leader's neck, and he brought his hand up to feel a large metal spike protruding from his neck. He felt a foot on his back, then felt the metal sliding from the wound in his flesh, and finally himself tumbling forward, unable to breathe.

As he landed, he watched the Saiyan tear apart the lesser, unarmored companions of his squad. One had his arm torn from its socket, and the Saiyan beat the other Jiralhanae with his own limb. It was almost a one-sided fight, being so in the Saiyan's favor. The leader tried to let out a yell of fury, but all he could manage was gurgling on his own blood as he died.

Archis' strength had increased one hundred fold to match his anger, and he hadn't tried to channel that anger into his Super form. He was going to save that form for their leader, the one who carried the hammer. One of the Jiralhanae he was fighting came at him with an odd weapon that fired the same kind of spikes that he had pulled from his father's back, but to the alien's dismay the spikes bounced right off the Saiyan's form and landed uselessly around him.

From t he corner of his eye, Archis spotted a large purple craft coming towards them, hovering barely a foot off the ground. Its top opened up into a claw shape, and Archis could see energy forming in its maw. The spiker-wielding Jiralhanae turned and began to run, as if he feared the destructive power of the vehicle more than the fury of the Prince ripping his comrades apart.

Snickering, Archis teleported directly in front of the alien, and grabbed him by his fur. The creature let out a yell of pain and fury as Archis spun and launched him into the air, at the same time the the purple ship let loose a large blue blast of plasma fire. The Jiralhanae brute collided with the ball of plasma and exploded into a bloody mess, sufficiently distracting the drivers of the vehicle enough for Archis to launch a volley of Ki blasts at them.

Three or four blasts hit the front of the vehicle and it exploded, instantly dropping to the ground from its hovering height. There were no survivors of the vehicle.

Archis surveyed his handiwork, looking over the bodies of the fallen aliens for any kind of weapons he could use. He spotted a long, bottle shaped item hanging from one of the alien's bodies, and picked it up. He spotted a button on the bottom of the object, and pressed it, looking at it in awe as spikes suddenly protruded from the main body of it.

Behind him, another flying ship approached, this one smaller than the other ships, seemingly built for a single occupant. The vehicle emitted a high pitched screaming sound as it approached, reminding the Saiyan of a banshee. It fired upon Archis, the twin plasma blasts scorching the ground and kicking up dust as they landed. Archis took the weapon he held in his hand and threw it up at the flying vehicle, watching in satisfaction as it penetrated the hull and stuck.

The pilot opened the canopy of the vehicle as it was flying and jumped out, landing on the ground and rolling forward with the remaining momentum. A second later, the grenade that had stuck to his vehicle exploded, destroying the craft. The Jiralhanae let out a yell of fury before the burning craft landed on top of him, squishing him into the ground.

Archis grinned, gathering up the remaining grenades and clipping them to his belt. He left the guns alone, preferring to use his fists and his skills, but he did gather a few of the metallic spikes fromt he group that had gathered at his feet. Sufficiently armed and ready for the fight, Archis launched himself from the platform, flying as furious speeds towards the large silver ship on the horizon.

As he flew towards the ship, an energy reaction underneath it caught his attention. He never slowed, but he failed to reach the ship before it fired. The beam of light connected with the ground and expanded, overtaking the entirety of Ensis, the palace, and nearly himself. When the light faded, there was nothing left. Even the ships that had been fighting were wiped out. Obviously, whoever was driving was desperately trying to kill off someone; him.

The Saiyan city of Ensis was gone. His family was wiped out. He didn't know if Ensis was the first attack on the planet or the last. But he clenched his fists all the same, watching the ship as sparks started forming around it. A portal opened up on its nose as it began moving, and Archis got a bad feeling. He rushed towards the ship and teleported inside at the last second, just before it completed its slipspace jump, the shockwave obliterating not only the ruins of Ensis, but the ruins of the surrounding cities as well, as Ensis _HAD_ been the final attack for the group of aliens. The Saiyans on the planet of Castor no longer existed, and Archis' brand of Saiyan was now extinct, save for him.


	4. CH4

Archis hid in as small a portion of the ship as he could find, which happened to be some wiring ducts. As he followed the path of the wires looking for the control room of the ship, he did some thinking to himself.

_'For all I know, Ensis was the final path of slaughter for these bastards,'_ he began to himself. _'This means I am the last of my race from Castor, unless the rumors about me having a long lost brother are true, which I doubt. Only a handful of Saiyans remain alive now..._

'I can't go back to Castor and rebuild. I don't have a Saiyan mate with which to repopulate the planet. All of our technology was destroyed. I'm officially homeless, my family has been killed...'

Archis came to a halt. Lost in his thoughts, he had come to a halt in front of a vent looking into a room. He didn't know if it was the control room or not, but heard many voices, so he figured he could stop for a bit and listen.

"... and killed over half our squadron! And all for some measly smooth-skinned primate with a tail! You're lucky I'm not reporting all of this to the Prophets."

"Are you crazy? The Prophets don't know that Brackus stole this ship and headed out for that planet in the first place. They always said those... what race was that, Saiyan? They always said the monkeys were too weak to mold into the Covenant, and never green-lighted our attack on them in the first place. Brackus has lost his mind."

"All the more reason to report!"

There was a thud, followed by a slight choking noise. "You listen to me. You report him, and the Prophets will order this ship torn apart, with us inside. They won't care who called them, they'll consider us all traitors. One more peep out of you about- you know what? Nevermind." A loud snap echoed through the wiring vent, followed by the noise of a body sliding down a wall and thudding to the ground. "A pity he didn't know that I'm Brackus' right hand."

Archis had held his breath throughout the entire conversation. _'This is a rogue unit, eh?'_ he thought to himself. _'Good, destroying them means I won't have to fight off an entire alien race. This Brackus is the bastard responsible for the destruction of Castor... I need to find him._

Looking out of the vent, Archis could tell that he hadn't stopped at the control room. Instead, it looked more like the armory where he was. He stayed in the vent area until the room was cleared, then exited into the armory to stock up on weapons. True, a typical Saiyan wouldn't think to sink so low as to use weapons against their foes, but these weren't the typical foes, and Archis wasn't your typical Saiyan.

Archis found a cache of spiked grenades, and hooked as many as he could to his belt. He also found another kind of grenade, one that looked like little more than a red glowing canister with black caps. He took a few of those and attached them to his shirt. He picked up a large gun that had an enormous blade on the underside of it, and inspected the ammunition for it. Unimpressed, the Saiyan forcibly removed the blade from the weapon and lashed it to his right forearm, then tossed the gun portion away.

A clatter when the weapon landed interrupted him. Archis walked over to where the gun lay, and spotted what looked like two pound weights lying everywhere. He picked one up and held it in his hand, noticing two slots with power generators attached. Holding the slots away from him, he squeezed on the handle, and watched as a large plasma blade erupted from it. He grinned.

Finding space on his belt, Archis grabbed a second blade and attached both, powered down, to it. Feeling adequately armed, Archis retreated back to his vent, grabbing a red grenade as he went. He tossed the grenade back into the room, and replaced the vent grating as he walked away from the room.

The grenade went off, igniting the room in napalm flames. The fire caught a hold of the dead Jiralhanae body, which only added to the fire by that time. The Brute had a row of grenades on his belt, which exploded as soon as the fire touched them. The chain of resultant explosions completely obliterated the armory, as well as the weapons contained therein. Some shards of the explosions flew into the vent and sliced up some of the wiring, causing the ship to come to a complete stop, as well as affecting the lighting, causing it to flicker continuously.

Archis, of course, managed to escape the explosions and such. _'Unless the armory had cameras,'_ he thought to himself, _'they'll never know it was me until the end.'_


	5. CH5

"REPORT!" The cries of Chieftain Brackus could be heard throughout the remainder of the ship, even into the cargo holds at the opposite end of the massive warship. A smaller alien, known as a Grunt, stuttered and stammered his way through his report to the Chieftain, thoroughly regretting his decision to stay on-board the ship while the rest of the crew had been granted shore leave.

"An explosion of un-unknown origin has severed th-the wiring in f-four of the five conduits controlling th-the power to the ship. Backup generators have overloaded, and s-safety protocols h-have shut them d-down to keep them from d-decimating the ship. Th-the armory has b-been completely ob-obliterated." The Grunt took a deep breath to calm his racing heart. "Furthermore-"

He would have continued had Brackus not took that moment to reach out and crush his skull in his hand. The Grunt died where he stood.

"My ship is drifting listlessly through space... I have no weapons at my disposal save for the few I have garnered in my quarters... I decimated the monkey's planet and still have not found him... this is HIS WORK!" He let loose a rage-filled scream and slammed his fists into the wall, leaving a pair of dents and causing his hands to tingle. Growling, he turned around, facing the main control panel of the navigation room. "Open a channel to the entire ship. I wish to speak to my men.

"Attention, all Jiralhanae aboard this ship. We have an intruder. He is responsible for our current situation, and I am CERTAIN that he is still alive. If you find him, detain him, but keep him alive. I wish to fight him myself... I wish to kill him with my own hands. Disobey me, and I'll make sure your death is long, painful, torturous, and dishonorable. You will miss out on the Great Journey."

A click resounded through the navigation room as the intercom turned off. Brackus leaned forward and hissed into the Brute pilot's ear. "Get this ship back up and running, or I'll make sure _you too_ will miss out on the Great Journey." Rage smoldering, he stood up from his position and retreated to his quarters, adjacent to the navigational area.

Brackus' temper was legendary on his home planet. He was one of the most feared Chieftains of all Jiralhanae, and had been known to scare many of his subordinates into loyalty with merely a glare in their general direction. But the rage heard in his tone and command was nothing that his race had ever seen before. So afraid for their lives were they that at the end of the inter-ship transmission, they were packing the lifeboats and abandoning the ship. Many of them had seen the decision that Brackus had made to decimate the last city of the Saiyans with many of their comrades still on the planet and inside the blast radius, and they feared that he would destroy the ship, and them along with it, in his quest to obliterate the intruder.

He could have the intruder. The Jiralhanae wanted nothing more to do with Brackus. They now considered the Chieftain to be a traitor to his race, and couldn't wait to get off the ship. Within twenty minutes of the announcement, all the lifeboats had been packed with Brutes and launched, every single one of them having left the ship, save for Brackus' right hand Brute Arkum, and Brackus himself. And quite a few bodies of Brutes that had been caught by Arkum trying to abandon the ship.

Brackus was brooding in his quarters. He had the fight all planned out in his head. He planned to crush the Saiyan that had intruded upon his stolen ship, and repaint the hallways with his blood. He paced back and forth in his room, waiting for a message that the Saiyan had been caught, but soon grew impatient.

Brackus was enormous, even for a Jiralhanae. The average male Brute stood at about eight feet tall, and Brackus out shined them by a whopping four feet. He looked about his room, seeing the many weapons he had stashed there for his own use. There were a pair of Gravity Hammers in the corner, both of which he strapped to his back. He grabbed a Brute Shot and strapped that to his leg, then grabbed a Spiker and a handful of Plasma Grenades.

Satisfied with his armament, he turned towards his door, ready to go hunting. The door opened before he got to it.

"Brackus." It was Arkum, his right hand soldier, the most loyal of his pack. "The ship has been deserted. It is just us and the intruder."

Brackus' pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks, his rage was so great. "**WHAT?** Traitorous scum, the lot of you!" He breathed heavily, raising his arm and rushing his friend, smashing him into the wall and pressing his arm into Arkum's throat. "Get to the guns, blow them all away," he hissed, watching him turn blue in the face, then let Arkum slide to the floor, coughing as he tried to regain his air.

"I have a monkey to hunt."


	6. CH6

Had there been power to the ship, the alarms would have sounded the instant Brackus made his announcement about an intruder, but it didn't matter. Archis was now aware that the Brute knew he was on the ship.

_'Lucky guess,'_ he thought to himself, trudging along ever so quietly through the ventilation system. The luck that the explosion in the armory would have disabled the power meant that he didn't have to find the navigation room after all. Now he just had to find the ship's core. Once there, a well-placed grenade or Ki shot would overpower the power cells and cause the ship to explode. Castor was once a technological master in the universe, and Archis knew how all slip-space vessels worked.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of heavy footfalls, and Archis stopped. Right outside vent, beyond the wall, one of the two Brutes left in the ship was stomping. He listened carefully, trying to make out any voices. he would be rewarded greatly.

"That Brackus. Too blinded by his own anger to realize that without power, the guns can't be utilized. I'm done with him. He can have his ship, he can have his monkey, I'm through."

The footsteps receded, then stopped. There was a slight mumbling, then a large bang as a dent suddenly appeared in the vent a few feet in front of Archis. The footsteps began getting louder, and it sounded like the Brute was running down the hall, back in Archis' direction.

"ARKUM! I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET! GET BACK HERE!" Brackus' voice resonated throughout the small space that the ventilation shaft afforded the Saiyan, as the Brute shouted down the hallway at the retreating footfalls of his fellow. Obviously Arkum had no idea that Brackus had been so close, and now the Brute was on a murderous rampage to seek out not only Archis, but now his former friend as well.

Both sets of footfalls disappeared, and Archis breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't afraid of his enemy, but he wasn't ready to be revealed just yet. He still had to find the core, so that he could take out his enemy and his enemy's ship all in one blast.

Unfortunately, fate would not allow that to happen. A loud clang behind Archis caused the Saiyan to spin around and look directly into the face of Brackus, who had driven his head into the ventilation vent in anger. The two stared at each other, anger rising, and then they both acted on impulse, the Brute forcing his way inside the vent, and the Saiyan blasting his way out of it. The fact that Brackus had to get out of the ventilation shaft gave Archis time to grab a Spike Grenade and throw it at the base of the hole he blasted out..

The Grenade went off just as the Brute stepped from the exit, and the resultant explosion made him stumble backwards. Spikes flew in every direction, some severing the ties that lashed the Brute Shot to Brackus' leg, and others blowing off the armor that the Jiralhanae always wore. His head was now exposed.

Brackus let out a bloodcurdling scream of fury, and charged out of the hole, directly into Archis, who had taken some time to power up into Super Saiyan. Had Archis not done so, the resultant crash would have splattered his body across the hallway. Even so, the connection of the twelve foot tall Brute with the six foot tall Saiyan was strong enough to knock Archis through the wall, and directly into the core of the ship.

The Brute grabbed hold of the wall beside him and held on, looking for a platform to jump to, as Archis continued to speed backwards until he hit the main power generator and came to a stop. He coughed and shook his head, having completely underestimated the strength of the brute he was fighting. He looked around him, spotting the Brute heading towards him, jumping from conduit to conduit, unable to fly like the Saiyan. He had a large, hammer-like weapon in each hand, and was swinging them with an expertise the Saiyan had never seen before.

Archis grabbed both Plasma Sword hilts and activated them, holding one in front of his face and the other behind him. He waited for Brackus to arrive, gearing up for the biggest fight of his life.


	7. CH7

_**The stage**_: The engine room of the Covenant ship The Reluctant Messiah.  
_**The characters**_: A crazed, 12-foot tall Jiralhanae Chieftain, and a vengeful 6-foot tall Super Saiyan.  
_**The scenario**_: One fights to avenge his home and his family. The other fights for generally unknown reasons. Only one will win...

Brackus leapt from pillar to pillar, each bound carrying him closer and closer to his target. He watched the Saiyan pull the swords from his belt, and inwardly he grinned; he didn't want to crush the monkey in the first blow and without a fight. He began spinning the hammers in his hands, and on the final leap at the floating Saiyan, reared back with both and slammed forward, intending to hit the glowing Saiyan full in the chest with both.

Archis crossed both Plasma Swords in front of him, and allowed the energy blades to absorb the impact from the hammers. There was no shockwave as the plasma was not really a 'solid' surface, so upon striking, the hammers could not produce the shockwave effect. Archis' hands, however, were tingling from the strike and the effort to fend off the rage-driven Brute, and the force of the impact caused the Saiyan to float down to the ground.

The Brute pressed both hammers into Archis' swords, growling and glaring, trying to overpower the Saiyan, and the Saiyan pushed back. It looked to be a stalemate. They were both standing on one of the many platforms where a company of Covenant soldiers would have gathered before launching an attack, with the power coupling manifold in the back, behind Archis, though separated by a large open space and a nearly 700-foot drop.

Suddenly the Brute pulled away with both hammers, causing Archis to lose his balance. Brackus did an impressive back-flip in place as Archis tried to catch himself, and brought both hammers up into the Super Saiyan's chest. Both connected at the same time and resonated shockwaves that sent the warrior flying, flipping and tumbling through the air. To the Brute's amazement, the Saiyan still had a firm grip on both energy swords even as he flipped uncontrollably through the air.

Archis slammed into the power manifold, denting the casing and sticking there for a bit. He shook his head, coughing, trying to catch his breath. He couldn't take another hit like that. He powered down the sword in his left hand and reattached it to his belt, then shifted the sword from his right hand into his left. With his free right hand, he grabbed one of the spiked grenades he had brought with him, and pressed the button to activate the spikes.

Forcing himself out of the metallic dent, he planted his feet on the wall and stared directly at the Brute. Brackus roared something unintelligible, obviously blinded by his rage. Archis launched himself at his adversary, bringing his sword up over his chest as if to slash at his foe in a downward, backhanded motion. Brackus responded by raising both hammers, intending to smash the Saiyan into the floor upon arrival.

Seconds before Archis came within smashing range, he disappeared. Brackus had already begun his swinging motion, and he couldn't stop himself before the hammers collided with the ground. The shockwave didn't affect him much, but it did throw him off balance. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Archis reappear, and he spun around to try to meet him. He was too slow, and felt something heavy stick into his back with a high-pitched hum. He already knew what it was.

The explosion from the grenade sent the Brute flying forward, off of the platform and hurtling to the depths below. He still had a grip on his hammers, so he reared back with both of them, and waited. As he neared the splattering point, Brackus swung both hammers downward, connecting with the ground and creating a heavy backlash shockwave that cushioned his body as he landed. Except for the jolt of the sudden impact and the slight disorientation, he was still in one piece and still ready to fight.

The shockwaves sent ripples through the air throughout the engine chamber. The following roar from the Jiralhanae confirmed Arhis' suspicions: Brackus was still good to go. Which was fine to him. He'd rather rip the Brute apart limb from limb than see him taken out by a single grenade to the back. Placing his fingers on his forehead, Archis spotted his energy on the ground below him and teleported down to meet the enemy.

Brackus seemed to sense that he was coming, as just as he appeared, he felt a single hammer connect with his chest. The force required to cushion his body as he landed had completely decimated one of his hammers, and left the other hammer sparking, the mechanism that created the shockwaves completely mangled and disabled by the impact. Still, it was a melee weapon, and it could still be used.

The Saiyan was sent flying through the air, connecting once again with the power manifold, this time at the best. He left another dent, and fell to his knees, coughing. He tasted copper and spat, seeing blood exit his mouth. Archis wondered just how much damage had been done. he could feel his power waning, and Brackus seemed unaffected by the fight. He looked up to see the Brute charging him, and rolled out of the way just as the Brute reached him, causing Brackus to slam head first into the base of the power manifold.

The floor shook from the impact. While Brackus stumbled around dizzily, Archis got up and retreated a distance away. He stood, looking at his foe, and decided to use a technique he had picked up from a Saiyan he met on Earth. He spread his feet to shoulder length apart and squatted, placing both hands, the base of his palms together, at his right hip, and he began channeling his Ki into his palms, while reciting the mantra for the move.

"Kaaaaaaa... Meeeeeeee..."

He was told that the slower he chanted the words, the more powerful the beam would be. He understood that from where he was firing, his original intent of destroying the ship by energy overload would be forfeit, but he didn't care. He was tired of being beat up by his foe.

"Haaaaaaa... Meeeeeeee..."

The light forming in Archis' hands was bright. The ball of energy had completely encased his hands and was beginning to flow outward, and the light from the energy had caught the attention of Brackus. He had shaken off his dizziness and was contemplating charging at the Saiyan again, but as he dropped low to charge again, a loud yell from his Saiyan adversary caught him by surprise.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Archis thrust he hands outward as he yelled, aiming his beam of energy directly at the Brute. Brackus was caught completely by surprise, caching the entirety of the beam full in the chest and being carried with it through the metallic power manifold, through the wiring of the machine and out the other side.

The way a Ki beam worked, it defied physics. A Ki beam did not have an equal and opposite reaction unless another Ki beam of equal or greater force was being applied to it from the opposite side. So in order for the beam to dissipate early, the owner of the beam had to will the Ki energy away, and pull it back into them, a feat not many could do.

The beam faded as it exited the other side of the coupling, and Brackus' body was sent flying across the gap into the opposite wall, a flight of more than 3000 feet. The thud could be heard throughout the room, and Archis collapsed to his hands and knees, his tail fading back to its normal black. He was exhausted, and tried desperately to regain his energy.

Brackus wasn't dead yet. Brackus' roar of fury echoed throughout the hull. He no longer held his hammer. He no longer had any lasting armor. His left arm hung loosely at his side, and the vision in his left eye was obscured by the blood pouring from his forehead. But he was alive, and he was still ang- no, he was beyond angry now. His roars of fury turned into laughter, and he rose, shakily, to his feet.

"MONKEY!" he screamed, knowing the Saiyan could hear him. "You've put on a good show! I commend you for that, but it's over now! Just give up, and allow me to rend you limb from limb without any resistance!"

Archis coughed, finally able to stand. He leaned back against the wall and took deep breaths, trying to get his bearings once more. He heard the tauntings of his opponent, and inwardly groaned. He wanted this fight to be over already.

Taking a deep breath, he shot back, "What did I ever do to you to make you destroy my family and my home?"

The dark laughter of his opponent ceased abruptly, and Archis strained to hear the movement of his enemy. He heard nothing, for a while, until the sound of a large object flying through the air directly at him caught his attention. He ducked and rolled out of the way as a Spike Grenade lodged itself in the wall where he was a moment before, which detonated, sending the Saiyan flying away.

Archis landed roughly on the ground, skidding to a stop against another wall. The laughter of his opponent resumed as smoke from the explosion covered everything, making it hard to see anything.

"Your idiotic race," Brackus' voice sneered suddenly from the dark, "decimated the home planet of my race, all in the name of profit." Brackus' feet were thudding ever closer to where Archis lay. "We were lucky to have inhabited another planet by the time you monkeys and your leader _Freezer_ got ahold of our first one. You refused to talk of peace, refused to make an alliance. From the moment you landed, you destroyed everything your eyes touched.

"Imagine our joy when we heard that your planet was destroyed. Can you not imagine the elation our entire race felt? And then a Sangheli scout returned as our proud race was joining the Covenant. The scout said that _Saiyans still thrived_. Your race still had your planet. Your race was still out there, seeking out and conquering other planets! _OUR CELEBRATION WAS IN VAIN!_"

A large vibration and thud filled the air directly in front of Archis as Brackus jumped and landed within inches of his head. He felt the large creature's hand grab the back of his neck, and forcibly lift him up. The two faced each other, and Brackus snarled.

"Those foolish Elders considered your race to not be a threat. They ignored my request to destroy your planet. So I stole a ship to do it myself."

Brackus turned Archis' body away from his eyes, and slammed him into the wall, making a dent as well as shattering a couple of the Saiyan's ribs. Archis screamed out in pain, unable to move anything because of the grip the Jiralhanae had on the pressure points in his neck... until the beast removed his hand.

"Our... planet," Archis began, "was destroyed. The Saiyans... your ancestors fought... are extinct... my race were... peace-loving..."

Hot, foul-smelling breath poured out around Archis' neck as Brackus leaned in close. "Lies..." The Brute stepped back, bent one knee and placed a hand to the floor, intending to charge the Saiyan and split him in half at the same time. "YOUR LIES, AND YOUR WEAKLING RACE, DIE WITH YOU!"

Brackus dug his foot into the ground and jumped forward, screaming a battle cry. At the same time, Archis got his second wind, powering back up to Super Saiyan and dislodging himself from the wall. As he fell on his back, the Brute passed over him, so he curled his knees into his chest and kicked upwards, his feet both connecting with the Brute's stomach and sending him soaring straight up into the air.

The movement caused an immense amount of pain to rush through the Saiyan, from his broken ribs. He was barely able to maintain his Super Saiyan form, rising to his feet and moving out of the way. A few moments later, the Brute came crashing down to the floor, and an audible snap was heard as he landed wrong on his left arm and snapped the bone in two.

Brackus' savage cry of pain and fury rose in volume as Archis stepped on his broken arm, right on the split, forcing the bones to separate. Archis was filled with vengeful fury himself. "HOW DID YOU KNOW TO LOOK FOR ME?"

Brackus writhed under the pressure from Archis' foot. It was a full three minutes before the Brute was able to answer. "The Covenant have probes around the Planet Mobius, where you were... the planet is one of their planned assimilations..." The Brute finally gathered his strength and wrenched his arm out from underneath the Saiyan's foot.

Archis lost his balance and stumbled backwards, allowing the Brute to stand. "Your foolish race fights everyone they come into contact with... even their own species. Mobius will fall to the Covenant, and there's nothing you can do to stop us. You had a better chance of beating us if you had partnered with your Saiyan friend instead of fighting him alongside that overgrown hedgehog.

"The time for talk has ended. I will not rest until I am wearing your blood, and your head." Brackus charged Archis, screaming as he held his arm behind him.

Archis waited. He'd had enough of this fight, and no longer wanted anything to do with the beast. He place the index and middle fingers of his right hand against his forehead, stepped to the side, and grabbed Brackus' shoulder as the Brute tried to stomp him into the ground. The two disappeared in an instant, and a second later Archis reappeared, the Brute nowhere in sight.

On LV-426, there is a large battle taking place. A horde of creatures with elongated heads and black, rubbery skin, drooling large amounts of saliva, are having a hard time bringing down a large, ape-like creature. The creature seems to be injured, one of its arms unmoving, but the remaining arm is proving to be more than enough for it. The ape has already ripped apart one of their comrades, and the black aliens were rather surprised when their acidic blood never touched its fur or its skin.

But they know that eventually it'll go down. It can't remain awake forever. Especially if it continues to scream into the night in its strange language, what is no doubt a warcry.

"ARCHIIIIIIIISSSSSS!"


	8. Epilogue

It's been a month since planet Castor was razed. After depositing Brackus on the planet of the Xenomorph, Archis warped back to the ship, and grit his teeth through the pain as he found a way to overload the engines and blow the thing into dust. In the wake of the explosion, the Saiyan IT'd his was back to Mobius, appearing right outside of the castle before collapsing into a coma.

Manic was the one who found the Saiyan first. He called attention to the guards, who picked up the young Saiyan and had him put into the hospital. His wounds were taken care of, his broken ribs fixed, and all that was left to do now was wait for him to come out of his coma.

Back on Castor, a handful of Saiyans were trying to clean up the destruction. They managed to hide from the Jiralhanae invaders, and so they, with Archis, were the last remaining Saiyans of Castor. The bodies of King Castor and the dead princess were given a royal burial, next to a grave marked with Archis' name, though it was empty since they couldn't find his body. In the back of the minds of every living survivor there lay the hope that Archis was still alive and would return some day, but considering the might of the alien force that destroyed their planet, the doubt mostly outweighed the hope.

Would Archis awake from his coma? Only time will tell...

-The End-


End file.
